Quotes from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“I suspected, however, that I wasn't homesick for anything I would find at home when I returned. The longing was for what I wouldn't find: the past and all the people and places there were lost to me.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“And who's to say that just because something lasts only a short time, it has little value?”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“It is one of the strongest bonds, I think, that can spring up between people: sharing a passion for certain books and their authors.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Women would be better off when they no longer needed men more than they needed their own independent identities...How long a time it took me after my divorce to understand that being alone is not the same as being lonely.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“His presence made me feel self-concious: of my appearance, of the way I was sitting, of my movements and gestures...It was the behavior of a woman reacting to a man who attracts her.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Freedom has its dangers as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off we'll be.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“It used to surprise me, the intensity with which I still remembered these distant memories. But when I entered my fifties...I understood their enduring clarity....In the end, what adds up to a life is nothing more than the accumulation of small daily moments.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“What if more of life could be like that? Like the last slow dance, where, to echo T.S. Eliot, a lifetime burns in every moment.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“I'm a woman in search on an adventure”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“In many ways I was an independent woman. For years I'd made my own choices, paid my own bills, shoveled my own snow.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“As I set out each day, I felt like a young child again. One who hadn't yet learned the rules of manmade time; the rules of clocks and calendars, of weekdays and weekends. Except the primitive markers of day and night, time lay ahead of me in a continuous, undefined mass.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“What adds up to a life is nothing more than the accumulation of small daily moments.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Maybe it was I who needed to learn how to be quiet instead of cluttering the moment with too many words.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“I had forgotten how wonderful it is to stand on a bridge and catch the scent of rain in the air. I had forgotten how much I need to be a part of water, wind, sky.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“At first the lives of women frightened me. They seemed so fragile, so dependent on fathers and husbands and brothers and lovers. Gradually, though, I noticed how supple their lives were beneath the surface. I saw, too, that sooner or later, by choice or by chance most women faced the task of adapting to a future on their own. When at my most optimistic, I thought of it as independence, in darker moods, as survival. Either way, women had to do it.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Life is like that I thought, as I turned the corner to my building. Freedom has its danger as well as its joys. And the sooner we learn to get up after a fall, the better off will be.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“I suppose that, after the passion of love, water rights have caused more trouble than anything else to the human species.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“How to stop rushing from place to place, always looking ahead to the next thing while the moment in front of me slipped away unnoticed.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“By then I'd knocked around enough to know that, in the end, what adds up to a life is nothing more than the accumulation of small daily moments.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“And like any group thrown together in a strange situation, we developed the sort of we're-in-this-together, for-better-or-for-worse camaraderie that I found appealingly familiar. It was something I missed, the sense of sharing those small, daily experiences that, as far as I can tell, are really what life boils down to.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Things happen, I thought, and we respond. That's what it all comes down to. To believe anything else, as far as I could tell, was simply an illusion.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Going back to school is like going back in time. Immediately, for better or for worse, you must give up a little piece of your autonomy in order to become part of the group. And every group, of course, has its hierarchies and rules- spoken and unspoken. It is like learning to live once again in a family- which, of course, is the setting where all learning begins.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“The fun-seekers, I noted, were spontaneous and flexible. They approached each day and each situation with a willingness to ride whatever wave came along, just for the experience of it. The complainers, on the other hand, would only catch a wave if it was exactly to their liking. Anything else drew loud protestations about how it was not what they expected.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“The sun came out. It filtered down through the leaves, creating a playful pattern of light and shade that danced before my eyes. The air smelled of lilies of the valley. As I walked beneath the canopy of trees, wrapped in the delicate fragrance, caution fell away. It didn't matter that I had no idea which street led to the place de Tertre or to my Métro stop. Destination no longer ruled. My only map was that of free association: I would follow each street only as long as it interested me and then, on a whim, choose a new direction.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“..., looking at the silent buildings, each one with a story to tell.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“After all, the word “travel” comes from the Latin “trepalium.” Which, loosely translated, means “instrument of torture.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“The writer ended with a line from Eudora Welty: “All serious daring starts from within.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“What is the one emotion that you would like to feel for the rest of your life?”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“Most of us, I suppose, have had at one time or another the impulse to leave behind our daily routines and responsibilities and seek out, temporarily, a new life.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

“I guess I'm too selfish to travel well with other people," I told Anne later.”
― Alice Steinbach, quote from Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman

About the author

Popular quotes

“Envy, bitter envy, was permeating his soul drop by drop, like a poison that tainted all his pleasures and made his life hateful.”
― Guy de Maupassant, quote from Bel-Ami

“Apparently, dancing for him and throwing herself at him weren't enough. Apparently, she had to nearly commit murder to arouse him enough to attack her.”
― Gena Showalter, quote from The Darkest Kiss

“He kisses me like he's giving me every kiss he wishes he could have given me the past, and every kiss he'll wish he could give me in the future.
All at once.”
― Colleen Hoover, quote from Confess

“Borbom protiv sanjara koji sanja ružnoću, bili oni ljudi ili bogovi, ne možemo a da ne ispunjavamo istovremeno i volju Bezimenog. U toj borbi biće i patnje, čime čovek ujedno olakšava svoj karmički teret, što bi mu se, doduše, desilo i kada bi jednostavno trpeo rugobnost; ali ova patnja doprinosi višem cilju, a u svetlosti večitih vrednosti o kojima mudraci tako često govore.

Prvo, čovek može da bude na izvestan način superioran u odnosu na svoje bližnje, pa ipak da im služi. Ako svi zajedno služe zajedničkoj stvari koja je po svome značaju iznad ma kog pojedinca.

Ne zamišljaj, o Sidarta, da se sad krećeš neprepoznat zato što nosiš novo telo. Ja gledam one tokove energije koji sačinjavaju tvoje stvarno biće - ne gledam meso koje ih maskira.

Čovekov intelekt sa emocijama njegovim često ratuje, a volja njegova sa željama njegovim... ideali njegovi često su neusklađeni sa njegovom okolinom, pa ako krene za njima, oseti bol što je napustio novi, uzvišeni san. Što god on radio, istovremeno i dobija i gubi, stiže ali se i udaljava. Uvek tuguje zbog stvari prošlih, i zazire od nekih stvari budućih. Razum se tradiciji protivi. Emocije se protive ograničenjima koja drugi ljudi čoveku nameću. Često u tim sudarima nastaje ono što si nazvao prokletstvom čovekai ismevao - krivica!

Biti bog, to nije samo prazna titula. To je jedno stanje bića. Da bi se to postiglo nije dovoljno samo biti besmrtan, jer i najbedniji težak na njivama mogao bi da obezbedi sebi ujednačen opstanak.

Biti bog sastoji se u tome da samog sebe ispoljiš do takve mere da se tvoje strasti podudare sa silama univerzuma, tako dobro da to odmah shvati svako ko te pogleda, iako nije čuo da se tvoje ime izgovara.

Biti bog, to znači biti u stanju u sebi spoznati ono što je važno, a onda se osposobiti da osdsviraš onu jednu notu koja će dovesti te sile u tebi u savršeni sklad sa celokupnošću svih stvari koje postoje. Onda više nema diskusije o moralu, logici ili estetici, nego jednostavno jesi vetar, jesi vatra, ili more, planine, kiša, sunce, zvezde, jesi let strele, smiraj dana, zagrljaj ljubavi. Vladaš pomoću onih istih strasti koje vladaju tobom.

Bilo bi lepo kad bi u univerzumu postojala bar jedna stvar konstantna, nepromenljiva. Ako takva stvar postoji, onda je sigurno od ljubavi jača, i sigurno je nešto meni nepoznato.

Kako može čovek da ubije nešto što niti stvarno živi niti stvarno umire, nego postoji; samo kao refleksija Apsolutnoga?

Bez obzira na skakutanje iz tela u telo, iz mozga u mozak, svaka ličnost zadržava svoj sopstveni umni otisak, svoje jedinstvene, neponovljive obrasce mišljenja.

Smrt i svetlost su svuda, uvek, i opet, u svetom snu Bezimenog, počinju i okončavaju, bore se, prate, ulaze u san i iznad sna su, vatrene reči urezuju u Samsaru, da tamo možda stvore nešto što će biti lepo kao umetničko delo.”
― Roger Zelazny, quote from Lord of Light

“They represented what people called the "international community." And like all uses of the word "community," you were never quite sure what or who it was.”
― Terry Pratchett, quote from Jingo

Interesting books

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.